Out of the World, Into the World

Transcript

Good morning, family. Good morning. It’s nice to be up here with no introduction. I just wanted to say how thankful I am for all of you, for your encouragement, for your support, for your prayer for me and my family over the past few months and years. It means a lot to us. So, please join me in prayer. Lord, we ask that as we open up your word that you would reveal yourself to us in the person of Jesus Christ. We pray that you would use your Holy Spirit to transform us, to help us to respond with faith, with worship, with obedience to our Master and Lord. And we ask this in his name. Amen. I was watching a YouTube video recently about the history of streaming services

and how the relationship with customers has changed over time. I know that I look young, but I did live at least a few years in the era of VHS, DVD, live TV. In 2007, when Netflix launched its streaming service, their goal was convenience for their customers, access to entertainment that wouldn’t require anyone to leave their homes to check out and return DVDs, to spend money on a product that they would only use once. And they provided something that was so good and so cheap that it took the world by storm until in 2011, Netflix was responsible for 30% of Internet traffic in North America. Fast forward to 2022. Netflix loses a million subscribers in a single quarter. This is through a combination of price increases, the rise of competitors like Disney+, Apple TV, HBO Max, a crackdown on password sharing that prevented people from watching YouTube

even if they were living in the same household but from a different location. And don’t even get me started on the ads. I don’t have Disney+, but when we were visiting my in-laws, I found out that a standard subscription to Disney+, loads in with four minutes of ads per hour. Just crazy to me. The platforms that had once championed the user experience had betrayed their customers. They had forgotten their constituents. They had neglected their subscribers for the purpose and sake of corporate greed. Maybe you felt this on a more interpersonal level. You got involved in a community, joined people with similar interests, similar goals, similar motivations, similar ideals. Maybe this was even a religious institution or a church. And just as you started to feel like you belonged, they turned the ship without you, abandoned what you thought were core convictions and defining characteristics. Maybe you feel this way in your relationship with God this morning.

When God Feels Distant

There’s a lot of uncertainty and chaos in the world, financial instability, economic instability, anxiety, political hostility, lawlessness, violence, greed. What do we do when we feel like God has abandoned us? When we feel like he has left us alone and forgotten his promises to us? Turn with me to John chapter 17. This morning we will be unpacking the middle section of Jesus’ prayer right before he’s going to be betrayed, arrested, tried, and crucified. And Jesus, though he is praying to the Father, he’s using this as an opportunity to teach and encourage his disciples. Their world is about to be turned upside down. Jesus, their rabbi, the one they have given everything to follow, the one they confess as Savior and Lord, is about to leave, first to the cross and then to the Father’s side. They’re going to feel fear, abandonment, confusion, maybe even betrayal from the one

they’ve given their lives to. So Jesus prays for them. He reminds them that in the midst of their trials, they belong to him. They are protected, that even though they feel alone and abandoned, they are not. They will be kept and held by the Father because they have been set apart for a purpose. I don’t know what burdens you’re carrying this morning, but I know with confidence that God is not done with you. And if you belong to him, he has set you apart for his purposes. He will not leave you or forsake you. In the world, you will have tribulation, but take heart. I have overcome the world. My hope is that this morning, we will see that those who belong to Christ are protected by the Father and set apart for his work. If you’re taking notes, that will be the outline for us this morning.

Those who belong to Christ are protected by the Father and set apart for his work. And I pray that we would hold fast to the word of God, his promises, and his son because he saved us and he will hold us firm in the chaotic and uncertain storm of a world that we live in. John 17. You’ll be helped by having the passage open in front of you. I will refer to it often. Read with me, starting in verse 6. I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them, and have come to know in truth

that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me. I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine is yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I’ve guarded them, and not one of them has been lost, except the son of destruction, that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.

I’ve given them your word, and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake, I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. I want to answer two questions in this first section. The first question is, who belongs to Christ? Let me reread verse six. I’ve manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Who belongs to Christ?

Who Belongs to Christ?

The first identifier of those who belong to Christ is that they are the ones that Jesus has revealed the Father to. John starts his gospel by revealing this truth. No one has ever seen God, the only God who is at the Father’s side. He has made him known. Jesus is the one who must reveal the Father to us, and he does. That’s really what is meant when Jesus says that he has manifested the Father’s name to his disciples. That’s not his literal name, but the summation of all of his attributes, his character. This is why Jesus, the Son of God, is the pinnacle of God’s revelation to us. Jesus is not only God incarnate. He’s not only God in human flesh. He’s not only the word of God, the one who has spoken to us in the last days. He’s not only a good teacher.

He’s not just a good example for us to follow. Jesus is the unveiling of God’s mystery, the radiance of the Father’s glory, the exact imprint of his nature, because in the gospel, we see the full range of God’s character, the abundance of his saving mercy and love. It’s because of Christ that we are able to see how a holy, righteous, just, and infinite God can dwell with man. What once was seen only in the shadow of the law or the sacrificial system is now seen in full through the saving work of Jesus on the cross. We are now able to know the Father through Jesus. And Jesus himself likens this relational knowledge to eternal life back in verse 3. This is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. Eternal life is more than just living forever.

Eternal life is a state of knowledge of God and how he’s revealed himself to us in Jesus Christ. What it means to truly live, what it means to truly be human is to continually grow in our knowledge of God, his attributes, his saving work in Jesus Christ, his love for us, and his desire for us, his people. All of this is made possible through Christ, who not only spoke truth, but lived and died to give us access to God. Those who belong to Christ are those to whom he has revealed the Father. And if we look again at verse 6, we begin to see other identifiers of those who belong to Christ. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. For I have given them the words that you gave me,

and they have believed them, and have come to know in truth that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me. Who is it that belongs to Christ? Those who receive God’s word, who know Jesus, who know his truth, who believe that Jesus is who he says he is, and who have kept his word. I think that all of these descriptions need to be taken together. We must hear and receive God’s word. We must know and understand the truth about Christ and what he’s done for us. We must believe that Jesus is who he says he is, that he is the Son of God, sent from the Father to reveal the Father and to bring salvation to us by atoning for our sins on the cross. And we must hold fast to that obedience, in obedience. But the second question I want to ask is,

what does it actually mean to belong to Christ? What does it mean to belong to Christ? If we know and receive and believe and even obey the truth about Jesus, what does that mean for us? What does it look like? And I chose the word belong, you might have seen it throughout the service as well, because it has two main uses, and I think they both fit what Jesus is describing here when he’s talking about his disciples. Someone can belong to a group or an organization like a church or a political party or an ideological movement by being a member or a participant. You can even experience belonging in a close-knit group of friends or family. Belonging is tied to your identity, your allegiance, your loyalty. The question of belonging to Christ really is a question of what it means to be a Christian. It means that we identify with Christ and his people.

We identify with the people who have been adopted into the family of God. Being a Christian is not about a political ideology. It’s not about a set of principles. It’s fundamentally a transformation of our identity. It’s a rejection of the independent and self-sufficient person that I want to be, apart from God. It’s a rejection of my efforts to find purpose, or even salvation in anything apart from God. It’s more than just embodying better morals, gaining an understanding of the Bible, or mentally agreeing that Jesus was a real person. Being a Christian means that we find our identity, our hope, our joy in Christ, who lived perfectly to grant us righteousness and died to take the wrath of God in our place. And if you’re here and you’re not a Christian, this is the hope that Jesus offers you today. You can receive eternal life, the forgiveness of sins,

a relationship with the God of the universe by turning from your sin and believing in Jesus, believing that he is who he says he is, that he has accomplished salvation for you on the cross, that he was raised from the dead as proof that a sacrifice was accepted and that he now reigns at the Father’s side. 2 Corinthians 5.17 says that if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away, behold, the new has come. He will give you a new identity, a new heart, a new purpose. Come find me after the service or talk to anyone in this room who calls himself a Christian. We would love to talk to you more about what it means to follow Jesus. We would love to answer your questions, to open up God’s word with you, to pray with you or even to hear your story

and what brought you here. Don’t leave without considering what it would mean for you to follow Jesus. He is revealing himself to you today through his word. You’re not here by accident. Don’t be oblivious to the grace that he is extending to you today. So belonging involves our identity. But the second meaning of the word involves a level of ownership. This is the second way that this word can be used. I might say my car belongs to me or our parking lot belongs to the Seventh-day Adventist church next door. And I want us to look a bit deeper at this language of belonging, of ownership. It’s not enough just to say that I identify with Christ, that I’m on his team. When we say that we belong to Christ, we’re submitting our lives to him. We are his. He commands our lives, our obedience, our wills.

Look at all of the possessive language that’s used in this passage. Verse 6, Yours they were and you gave them to me. Verse 9, I’m not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me for they are yours. Verse 10, All mine are yours and yours are mine and I’m glorified in them. In the 17th century, Galileo through telescopic observation was able to prove existing mathematical models that the sun does not revolve around the earth. The earth revolves around the sun. The earth is not the center of the universe. And I think we can tend toward living this way as Christians. As if I am the center of the universe. As if the sun revolves around me. Family, when we say that we belong to Christ, we are relinquishing our view

that our lives are about us. That everything is about us. We are not the center of the story. Christ is the center of the story and we exist for him. We are the joy that was set before him for which he endured the cross and despised the shame. According to Hebrews 12. We are the portion and spoil, the prize that will be divided and given to Christ on the last day. According to Isaiah 53. We are those who have been rescued from the world, delivered from the domain of darkness, sanctified, restored, purified, and dressed in garments of righteousness to be presented as a bride to Christ on the last day. This isn’t colorful imagery. This isn’t just fancy words. This is reality. God doesn’t exist for us. We exist for Christ. We are the father’s gift to a perfectly obedient son. Even though he is our source of life,

he is the fount of every blessing, even though the sun provides the earth with light and life, we, like the earth, belong in the domain of the sun. Trinity Church, how are you tempted to live the self-centered view of your Christian life? How are you tempted to think and believe and act like Jesus exists for my benefit, for my pleasure? Yes, it’s true that in him is the fullness of joy, that he is the giver of good gifts, but that is only when we are placed in our rightful place in his story. I think a good way to check ourselves on this is to carefully consider our prayer life. What do you find yourself praying about? Do our prayers reflect a me-centered view of God? Do you pray with Christ that the Father would be glorified, that God would be glorified in his people? Do you pray that you and the Church of God

would be sanctified and cleansed so that we might be presented to him in splendor, holy and without blemish? Or are your prayers primarily about you and mere circumstances? To belong to Christ is to submit ourselves to his lordship, to give up the sinful desire we have to fit Jesus and his word around our convenience, our agenda, or our schedule. Scripture is clear. 1 Corinthians 6, You were not your own, for you were bought with a price. 2 Corinthians 5, Christ died for all that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who for their sake died and was raised. If Jesus has revealed himself to us, if he has convicted us of sin by the Holy Spirit, if he has caused us to know and believe his word, then we belong to him. We are found in him as our shelter

Protected by the Father

from the wrath of God, and we belong to him as his portion, his prize, and his joy. We live for his glory, his will, and his purpose is not our own. We live as his ambassadors, carrying the aroma of Christ to a lost and dying world. And family, belonging to Christ should be our greatest encouragement, because he won’t leave us on our own. If we belong to Christ, second, we are protected by the Father. Read with me again, starting in verse 11. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost

except the son of destruction, that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Jesus, in these verses, is offering almost a summary of what has taken place in the past few chapters in John, and what he’s been teaching his disciples thus far. In verse 11, he reminds them that he is leaving the world, that he must return to the Father in order that the Spirit would come in his place

and declare his truth to them. He taught this back in chapters 14 and 16. In verse 12, he encourages them that to this point he has been guarding them, he has been watching over them, that even the betrayal of Judas back in chapter 12 was in the sovereign hand of God in accordance with scripture. In verse 13, he reminds them that though he leaves, he has spoken truth that will bring them fullness of joy once they see the other side of sorrow. We saw this back in chapter 16. And in verse 14, he says that the world will hate his disciples because it first hated him. Chapter 15. With all of this in mind, Jesus makes two requests of the Father. Keep them in your name, verse 11, and keep them from the evil one, verse 15. This is language of protection, of preservation. After everything that Jesus

has walked his disciples through, after everything that he has taught them in the previous chapters leading up to his death, he now prays that they would be held by the Father. For those who belong to him, he will keep us. He will hold us in his hand because he has saved us and will present us blameless before his presence with joy. I’ve been encouraged recently in a prayer in the Valley of Vision called The Mover. It’s based on this idea that God is the first mover, the one who first loved us, who took initiative in our relationship with him. And I’ll try to read part of it adjusted for modern English. You do not move men like stones, but you give them life, not to enable them to move without you, but in submission to you, the first mover. O Lord, I am astonished at the difference

between my receivings and my deservings, between the state I am now in and my past gracelessness, between the heaven I am bound for and the hell I merit. I could not have begun to love you if you had not first loved me or been willing unless you had first made me so. We are kept by the Father. We are bound to his truth. We are protected from the evil one and the schemes of this world because we were first acted upon by his saving grace and his conquering love. We are held by the Father, not our obedience. We are guarded by the first mover, the one who revealed himself to us in Jesus Christ, and we respond according to the love that he has shown us. Do you truly believe that God is the one who has saved you and that same God will keep you?

The extent to which we believe God is responsible for our salvation is the extent to which we will trust his sovereign hand to preserve our souls. If you belong to Christ, if you have been given to Christ by the Father as a reward for his saving work, if you have received and believed and trusted in his word, then like the author of Hebrews says, you are held by both God’s unchangeable character and his promise. And what Jesus is praying for matters because as he says in verse 14, the world hated him and it will hate his disciples because they hated him first. In the face of opposition, hate, rejection, we need the power of God to hold us fast to the truth so that we will not be swayed and lose sight of what is important. So pray. Pray with Jesus that God would guard us

according to his word, that he would protect us against the desires of the world, against the deception of the evil one, and use his prayer as a model for your prayer because Jesus’ prayer reveals our need. Pray for each other. All of us need encouragement in moments of weakness, in moments that we feel farthest from God, in the moments that he feels most distant. The disciples must have felt this way when they were scattered, when they experienced the horror of their master’s death. They must have felt like the world won, that Satan was victorious, that all of God’s promises had failed. And this is why Jesus, in his prayer, assumes that without the Father’s protection, without him guarding us and watching over us, we would be unable to survive in this world. So we must depend on him to bind us to the truth, to remind us that,

in the gospel, we belong to Christ. We must pray for ourselves and others to be reminded that he is our refuge, our rest, and our rock. The Father will protect us. He will guard our hearts and our souls, and the reason is because, unlike Christ, we remain in the world. And the world, the devil in our flesh, will do everything it can to alienate us from the God of life and light that sustains us. We need the Father’s help because we have a role to play in his sovereign plan. We need the Father to set us apart from the world so that the world might see and know Christ. And that transitions us to our final point. If we belong to Christ, we are set apart for the Father’s work. Look with me again, starting in verse 15. I do not ask that you take them out of the world,

Set Apart for His Work

but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake, I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. We’ve come to what appears to be the climax, the culmination of everything that Jesus has been praying for. He reminds his disciples that they are his. They belong to him. He prays that the Father would keep them from evil, that he would bind them to the truth of his character, because he’s now sending them into the world. The reason for our belonging to Christ and our distinction from the world, the necessity of the Father’s protection and the Spirit’s work becomes apparent, because we are called

to remain in the world while being set apart from it. Jesus prays for our sanctification, for us to be set apart, so that while we might be in the world, we would not be of the world, so that we might be sent into the world as his ambassadors, as his representatives, as his messengers, to declare the truth of what he spoke and what he accomplished on the earth. Either I didn’t pay attention in middle school, or I actually was 21 when I learned what a preposition is. It’s those little words that connect nouns together that communicate relationship, like direction, time, location, because nouns on their own, they carry no meaning. I have no relationship with this pulpit unless we use the word behind, or this cup has no relationship with the table until we use the word on. The cup is on the table, not under the table.

And in our passage, Jesus uses four prepositional phrases that modify our relationship with the world. Here they are. Out of, in, of, into. And I know that they’re small words, but they carry a lot of meaning. So let’s look at them together. Starting in verse six, Jesus says, I’ve manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Here’s a phrase that indicates movement. And this is what Paul means when he says in Colossians 1 that we’ve been delivered from the domain of darkness and transferred to the kingdom of the sun. This movement, this shift in our condition is initiated by receiving and believing the gospel. And this is why second, Jesus can say in verse 14 that his disciples are not of the world, just as he is not of the world. And again in verse 16, they are not of the world,

just as I am not of the world. If we’ve turned from our sin, if we’ve placed our faith in Christ, we who were once united with humanity in rebellion against God now have a new allegiance. We no longer belong to the world. We belong to Christ. We no longer identify with the world. We identify with Christ and his church. We are no longer of the world. We are of Christ and his kingdom. But this allegiance is a spiritual reality, not a physical one. We still remain in the world as residents in a foreign land. Jesus says in verse 11, I’m no longer in the world, but they are in the world. Jesus is returning to the Father, but his disciples continue and remain in the work that he began. You might spend six months in an exchange program in Germany for school, but you would remain

an American citizen and you’d return when you’re done. And then lastly, in verse 18, as you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. Though we were once part of the world, though we now no longer belong to the world, we are sent back to live in this world so that the world might know and believe in Jesus as the Son of God. And there’s tension here. There’s tension between our eternal reality and our physical experience. Philippians 3.20 says our citizenship is in heaven, and yet Peter says that we are called sojourners and exiles. What does this mean for us? Look again at what Jesus prays for in verse 17. Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. This is ceremonial language. It has a lot of Old Testament allusions, and it generally means to make holy, to purify,

to make separate from things that are profane, to dedicate them to God. And this is what Jesus accomplished for us on the cross. In verse 19 he says, For their sake I consecrate myself so that they also may be sanctified in truth. And these three words are the same. Sanctify, consecrate, sanctify. Jesus praised for his disciples and us to be set apart from the world. For his sake, for our sake, he set himself apart and offers himself as our substitute. He embodied holiness and applies that holiness to us so that by the truth of the gospel we would be set apart from his continued work. While we are in the world, we as God’s people are to remain distinct, marked by a different loyalty, different desires, different wills. In one sense, this work of sanctification and being set apart happens at conversion. First Corinthians says,

But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. Paul is writing this to the Corinthians because at the time the world had infiltrated their church to the point where it was no longer distinguishable. It was filled with greed, idolatry, sexual immorality, division, to the point where even the world thought that it was weird. He’s reminding them that the righteousness and holiness that Christ bought for us should reflect itself in our church. But it’s also an ongoing work, which is why Jesus prays for it and that’s why the author of Hebrews refers to Christians as those who are being sanctified. It’s a process that begins at conversion and it will continue until we are perfected and glorified on the other side of death. How are we sanctified? I know Jesus prays for it,

but how does it happen? It’s through God’s word. Jesus says, sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. In a similar passage in Ephesians 5, as Paul is writing to husbands to love their wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word. Trinity Church, we must be continually sanctified. We must be set apart from the world by the word of God, by the truth of the gospel. What will keep our unity unstained from the world? What will keep our eternal focus in view? What will mark us as distinct from the world in a way that’s both offensive in its proclamation and yet loving in its message? It is the unchanging, eternal, and true word of God. This is why we have such a high commitment

to the word of God driving all of the elements of our service, from the call to worship to the benediction. Our preaching must be more than just philosophy. It must be more than psychology and self-help. Our morality must be derived from the spirit-driven, life-transforming word of God. Our worship can’t be simply entertainment and emotional stimulation. God’s word must define how we worship, how we live, and how we engage together as a body. Our lives, our churches, our communities are only distinctly Christian when they are centered around the word of God and the truth of God revealed in Jesus Christ. The concept of the world infiltrating the church is not unique to the Corinthians. There are many movements in churches that water down the gospel, that redefine what truth is based on what is palatable or acceptable in society. These churches reject truths from scripture. They allow the world

to define what love and justice are. In an attempt to make the gospel more culturally relevant or less offensive, they champion the love and kindness of Jesus without the justice and wrath of God. And they’ve not only lost the meaning of the cross, they’ve lost the effectiveness of what it means when God calls us to be holy as he is holy. Other views like openness theology or process theology place human limits on God, claiming that he cannot know all things, that he must react to the decisions of men. Family, if the gospel was simply a reaction to human sin, if God responds to human whims, he ceases to be God. If God adapts to societal change and cultural change, if he can rewrite or retcon what he intended with marriage or sexuality, suddenly God can change his mind on how people are saved if they are well-meaning enough.

Suddenly God can change his mind about you. If God responds to human will, he can change how much he loves you based on how obedient you are. He can change his mind about what gender you were created to be or how you were supposed to love. Family, this is not the God of the Bible. This is not the God who has revealed himself to us in Jesus Christ. God does not change. Numbers 23.19, God is not man that he should lie or a son of man that he should change his mind. James 1.17, In him there is no variation or shadow due to change. He does not change his mind about the gospel. Ephesians 1, For those who belong to Christ, we are chosen in him before the foundations of the world, predestined for adoption into his family. He doesn’t change his mind about his word.

Psalm 119.89, Forever, O Lord, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens. Isaiah 48, The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. And God does not change his mind about you. Philippians 1.6, He has promised that once he began a good work in us, he will bring it to completion. John 10.28, He has promised that no one will snatch you out of his hand. Psalm 139.13, He formed your inward parts, knitted you together in your mother’s womb. You are fearfully and wonderfully made. Psalm 102, Of old, you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will remain. They will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away, but you are the same, and your years have no end.

God does not, and will not, and can never change. Long before a church has become outwardly tolerant of sin, long before it loses the gospel message, long before we deconstruct and reject Christ altogether, Satan attacks our doctrine. Satan makes us question what God has really spoken. Did God really say? We must be on guard against the philosophies of the world affecting how we view and understand God. Family, I urge you, interrogate Scripture through prayer, through careful study. Come to real conclusions about the hard truths that the world seeks to undermine. Meditate on the effects that it has on your life. Pray with Christ that the Father would hold us fast to the truth of Scripture, that he would keep us from the evil one. Pray that he would sanctify us, make us holy, make us distinct from the world so that the world would see

Living as Sent Ones

and believe in Jesus Christ as the only Son of God who gave himself for us and for our sins. Trinity Church, remember and be encouraged. If you are in Christ, the Father will keep you. He does not change. He does not change how much he loves you based on your obedience. He will sanctify you. If you are in Christ, then the Father will keep you. He will set you apart from the world. He will make you holy. He will bind you to the truth. In 1978, Albrecht Dietrich became Jack Barsky. He was a former German student who had been recruited by the KGB. He arrived in America to assume the identity of a U.S. citizen, and he was tasked with infiltrating political circles and leaking photos and documents back to Soviet intelligence. Over the next ten years, he began to fit in. He perfected his English.

He learned American culture. He worked in the tech industry. He married and had children. And ten years later, in 1988, when the KGB believed that he had blown his cover, when they gave the order for him to return, he deceived them. He chose to remain in the States under his new identity and a new life. He abandoned his previous wife and family. He abandoned his mission. He abandoned his country. He simply stayed in the false identity that he had set up for himself. Family, do not forget what you are here for. Jesus sends us into the world with a mission to preach the gospel to this world. Do not get caught up in the comforts and pleasures of this world. Do not be deceived into believing that this world is all there is to life. Live like you belong to Christ. Live like your allegiance

is to the triune God who has rescued you from sin and rebellion. Live like Jesus has sent you back into this world so that you might display the unity of God and his people together. Live like sojourners and exiles who, by protection and sanctification, are confident that your citizenship is in heaven, that this world is not your home. Let’s be a people that reminds each other of these truths, that encourages each other. Let’s be a church that’s marked by a commitment to the unchanging, unwavering, infallible, and eternal word of God. Would you pray with me? Lord, we pray that you would keep us, bind us to your truth, to your immutable character, to your divine word. Protect our church, our doctrine, our hearts from the deception of the world. Strengthen us, sanctify us, make us holy and distinct and set apart from the world, even as we remain in it,

so that all might see and know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. We ask this in his name. Amen.